Within the framework of the European project INCLUE, devoted to the “Building of an Inclusive and democratic Europe against the rise of fascism and xenophobia”, GSIS took part in the organisation of a session focused on the role of information and communication in such endeavours, held online from the headquarters of the University of León (Spain), coordinator of the project, on the 4th of May of 2021. 

The session – held in Spanish – was articulated in three parts:
(i) “From trees to networks: the real structure of the global information and communication system” by our GSIS colleague José María Díaz-Nafría;
(ii) “Subsidiarity as pillar for the articulation of the information and communication means in a plural and sustainable world” by Manuela Cañizares (from Madrid Open University) and Díaz-Nafría;
(iii) “The information and communication at the service of a democratic confrontation of the global challenges” by Alfredo Pena-Vega.

Such structure corresponds to an analytical overview of the situation and challenges concerning the information sphere in the first part; a proposal to overcome the problems derived from the current structure of the information and communication means in the second part (the figure in the header shows the cybersubsidiarity model as alternative); and a call for action linked to current ongoing campaigns in the third part.

It is in this call for action that our colleague Alfredo Pena-Vega, who is coordinating the international action “Global Youth Climate Pact”, took the opportunity to describe and to invite to the Homeland Earth campaign (see figure above), clearly linked to the very purpose of the INCLUE project of building up an inclusive and democratic Europe rise to the global challenges. Furthemore Professor Pena-Vega offered several interesting lessons learnt in the deployment of the “Global Youth Climate Pact” during the pandemic, revealing lights and shadows of the allegedly hyperconnectivity of the youth in the global North and in the global South.